Kinship of Rivals
by Kemious
Summary: Chapter 2 up Todd has a little discussion with the BoM
1. Gecko and Toad

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Kurt exited from an odd looking store and wander through the streets of downtown Bayville. In his hands he held Amanda's birthday present a blue brooch. He involuntarily sighed, ever since the incident with her parents it became increasingly more difficult everyday to see her each and everyday. He shook his head and took a deep breath. Now is not the time to worry about things like that, he told himself mentally, today is suppose to be a good day. With that, he continued walking. He caught a glimpse of Toad walking into an alley. Several seconds later he saw the familiar features of Duncan Mathews and several others with pipes and other assorted weapons follow. Kurt scoffed serves him right, he thought maliciously. Toad had ruined his life, his one chance to impress Amanda's parents all because he had wanted to impress Wanda. He turned and looked at the alley Toad had just gone through and felt a pang of guilt. Todd just wanted to be normal; to be liked, was that so hard to understand? With a sigh he vanished into a cloud of smoke.

A wave of pain echoed through Todd's head as he attempted stand up. The alley seemed to spin as looked around he managed to stand up leaning against the brick wall. He heard laughing but couldn't tell where it was coming from. Another wave hit him sending him to the floor. His hand reached the back of his head and he felt the blood slowly leaking out through the back of his head. He blinked several times and his vision returned to normal, but everything still sounded distant. He readied himself to leap over them but found himself instantly on the ground again as Duncan kicked him. The former jock towered over him smirking.

"If it isn't my favorite freak Tolensky?" Duncan smiled as he put on of his foot on Toad's back. His demeanor instantly changed as kicked him. "Its because of freaks like you!" He said with vemon dripping from his voice "We got expelled!" He yelled angrily at the downed boy. "Now its time for a little revenge." His face turned into a sadistic smiled as he approached him with lead pipe in hand.

"Step away from him and you won't be hurt!" a voice growled from the dark corner of the alleyway.

"Get out here and fight us like a man you fucking mutie!" Duncan yelled at the shadow.

"If you insist." Kurt replied as he appeared from the dark corners undisguised. Several of the guys ran while others stayed. Their grips on their weapons only hardened.

"You don't scare us you freak." One of them yelled as he charged Kurt. He ducked and whipped his tail slamming the guy into the wall. He slumped against the wall knocked out.

"Now I'm giving you one last chance to walk away from this…" None of them moved. "Okay I guess will do it your way."

BAMF

He appeared right in front of a dark skinned boy and tossed him into the dumpster. He dodged quickly as another boy swung his pipe at him and retaliated with a punch into the boy's gut, who crumpled onto the floor like a piece of paper. Duncan swung his pipe at Kurt who barely side stepped out of the way. He swung his tail and Duncan dropped the pipe. He threw a punch at Kurt who caught it with one hand and tried with the second the same thing happened.

"I tried to warn you." Kurt growled, "But you didn't listen." He bared his fangs at him before kneeing the former jock in his stomach. He turned to Todd who was getting out of his daze. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…I think so…" he struggled to reply.

"Look we better get you out of here." With a flash of light the two of them disappeared.

A few moments later they appeared in front of the Brotherhood boarding house. "Are you sure?" Kurt asked the Todd again."

"Yeah…Thanks." Todd managed as he headed towards the door. He stopped when he reached the porch. "Hey why did you help me yo?"

A thousand different replies flashed through his head. How it was his duty as an X men. How Duncan deserved it. How mutants were supposed to look after each other, none of these seemed right. "I don't know." He answered truthfully. "I guess it's because the two of us aren't really that different from one another. Our mutations make us the least humane looking among ourselves." His face twisted into a look of extreme disgust. "The two of us are constantly hiding. Me with my inducer and you with your…willing to please anyone to be excepted." he cracked a smile. "Doesn't really matter does it nien." He said looking towards the sky. "All I know is I did." Without another word he looked at the toad mutant and vanished into thin air. Todd turned to enter the house when something caught his eye…

Kurt tore through his room looking for Amanda's gift to no avail. He could not find the sapphire box which held the gift he bought not even an hour ago. In frustration he tossed a textbook across his room and glowered at it.

"Yo what happened here a tornado?"

Kurt whipped his head towards his window and glared at Toad who just hopped in. "What do you want?" He growled at the younger mutant.

"You dropped this at the Boarding house yo." Todd said as he flipped a small blue box at Kurt.

He opened it slowly to reveal the brooch he had bought earlier. He gazed at Todd who shifted uncomfortable. "Why did you do it…I mean come and deliver it to me?" he asked softly.

Todd scratched the back of his head slowly. "I really don't know. Maybe because of what you said yo. 'We aren't that different after all' Maybe cause we both are really hiding who we truly are. I really don't know either. Later fuzz ball." Toad yelled as he hopped through the window.

Kurt smiled at him before softly whispering "Good by mien friend."

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	2. In the hood house

I did the disclaimer in the first chapter so no need for the second. I'd also like to use this space to thank Feather Black. I admit in this chapter Toad/ may seem a bit OOC but It's justifiably and he'll be returning to his old self in the next chapter or so.

He stood there waiting. He didn't know how long but the lights had been off when he got there and by now the current residents were probably already sleeping. To be completely honest he actually preferred it that way. He wasn't especially in the mood to explaining the several marks on his body and why he had come back so late, thought he doubt that anyone would actually care. He'd learned long ago that no one in the brotherhood actually gave a rat's ass about him, with the exception of Freddy occasionally. To them he was just another annoyance that they had to deal with daily. To them he wasn't even worth the time of day 6 out 7 days of the week. Wanda was worst, despite the fact he poured his heart and soul into her and even once went as far as risking his own life just to prove it she regularly hexed him and insulted him. Pietro the self absorbed Albino found it funny every once in a while to shift his bed out of his room and into another state while he slept at night. Tabitha liked to toss her time bombs so that one or two would 'accidentally' land in his mouth when ever he tried to catch flies. And Lance, well Lance was okay so long if avoid his precious jeep. The only reason they ever spoke to him was to insult him or talk about the X-geeks as Pietro so lovingly called them Gathering what little courage he had Todd Grasped the handle and slowly opened the door.

He glanced around and saw no one. Good he thought. He walked in feeling more confident than before and armed with the knowledge that everyone else was still asleep he entered the house. It was just how he had left it more than several hours ago. Some half empty pizza boxes littered the floor, along with some of Lance's 'educational reading material' as he so called it. Todd briefly entertained the thought of Kitty one day finding some of them. The TV was left on; its snowy static slightly illuminated the room.

"Disgusting." He muttered slightly under his breath. Despite what most people thought of him he was actually a quite clean person. Well as clean as someone with a mutation like his could be. He found out along time ago that showering frequently had only mad the smell worse not better. With a sigh he made his way towards the living room.

FLICK.

Half way into the room light flooded the area. Temporarily blind and confused he glanced wildly around the room and spotted the other members of the brotherhood assembled on the base of the stair case and partly in the leaving room.

"Where were you?" Wanda's icy voice asked him. He slightly shivered at her voice and glare

Fuck busted, he thought at the sight. He smiled weakly at the group and tried to think about what to say. Um…Hi…guys…sorry I'm late. He fumbled hoping that would be enough to dissipate the matter. Judging from Wanda's unwavering glare and the looks on the others that would be very unlikely.

"Where were you?" She asked again her voice colder than before and filled with malicious. She looked at him knowingly and her voice laced with accusation.

White filled his vision as he felt a strong wind around him. Pietro's ever taunting voice filled the air around him. "Yeah-Toad-Where-were-you-huh-huh-huh."

He as he ran he didn't notice the younger teen's glare. Maybe it was the talk he had with Nightcrawler earlier. Maybe it was the fact that He envied Quicksilver the most out of everyone, Maybe it was because he was fed up with the way that they had always treated him. Maybe it was none of these or perhaps all of these factors, but what ever the reason uncharacteristically retaliated instead of taking his usually cowardly way and allowing the speedster to do as he pleased...

"None of your business Quicksilver." He spat out with venom that even shocked Wanda, and stuck a foot out and tripped the encircling Quicksilver. A sickening thud was made as Quicksilver hit the wall. He stood up baffled at the events that just happened. The normally easy target of the brotherhood had just tripped him, the magnificent Quicksilver. Shock quickly evaporated and was instantly replaced with unmasked anger. He looked ready to attack him, but saw the murderous glint in his eye. Maybe he had pushed him to far this time. Instead he settled on glaring at him and returned to his position by the stairs.

The others stood there momentarily taken back by the uncharacteristic response from the normally eager to please member of the group. Their brains still trying to comprehend what had just happened only seconds before. Lance shook out of his stupor "Toa…" he started then realized that perhaps that it would be wiser to address him by his real name in spite of the events that had just occurred to Pietro. He cleared his throat and started again. "Todd, Pietro said he saw you go the institute today. Is it true?"

Todd slowly processed the words that Lance had uttered. The blank expression on everyone's face, with the exception of Pietro's glare, told him what words did not. They thought that he had betrayed them. Angered he spat "Yeah it's true. I went to give something back to blue boy. If that's Okay with you." The last part was said with extra venom.

Tabby let out a hollow laugh in an attempt to lighten the mood. "You! Help Blue?" that's a good one. You hate his guts. You rant for hours sometimes about how much you hate him. Kind like Pietro." The others nodded; He like Pietro had never missed the opportunity to rake his rival.

"Well Yeah things can change yo."

"Yeah right!"

"No that any one of you would actually care, but blue boy actually helped me when Mathews and his goons jumped me." He mentally slapped himself for telling them this. They didn't care. "Why am I telling you this? You guys don't care." He pushed his way upstairs and slammed the door to his room. Leaving his housemates trying to figure what had happened that had brought out such a change in him.


End file.
